It has heretofore been proposed to provide a shallow cup of flexible material on the eye end of an eyepiece of a gunsight or optical instrument as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 737,872 to Saegmuller of Sept. 1, 1903. Similar, truncated conical, short length eye shields are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,271,380 to Strang of Jan. 27, 1942, U.S. Pat. No. 3,594,061 to Selvage of July 20, 1971, U.S. Pat. No. 3,669,523 to Edwards of June 13, 1972, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,594,062 to Disley of July 20, 1971.
A light protector of coil spring structure and of substantial length is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,943,387 to Jung of Jan. 16, 1934 and similar relatively elongated, generally cylinderical eye protectors for telescopic sights are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,183,594 to Panunzi of May 18, 1965 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,390,931 to Luning of July 2, 1968.